Caveman and Woman
by May K. Lunnaya
Summary: You're stuck with him for a whole day (night), and you still haven't SEEN him. Would you manage to fall in love with him?


STATISTICS:  
  
CLASSIFICATION - Romance / Drama / Comedy  
  
LENGTH - 19 pages  
  
MAIN CHARACTER - Usagi  
  
LOCATION - Pre-First Season - based on the anime  
  
RATING - PG  
  
SHORT SUMMARY:  
  
You're stuck with him for a whole day (night), and you still haven't SEEN him. Would you manage to fall in love with him?  
  
FROM AUTHOR:  
  
"Caveman and Woman" served me as a challenge of sorts, because it is very unlike anything I've written before. I've always itched to try myself out at a first season romance, and then I happened to stumble upon Alicia Blade's "Next Time Take the Stairs," and my mental wheels started turning... Thank you, Alicia, for giving inspiration for two of my stories in the weirdest way possible! This is my first try at the romance genre, though as you'll see, I couldn't resist from adding a light sprinkling of comedy to it, and somehow this turned out to be a drama as well. Psst... I'd love hearing from my readers.  
  
-May K. Lunnaya :)  
  
  
  
DEDICATION: To Vee. "Forever friends, friends together." This is for you.  
  
Caveman and Woman  
  
* USAGI *  
  
"...Are you even aware that you've left me standing in front of the movie theater, waiting for you in that blasted downpour for two hours, and you haven't even BOTHERED to show up?!"  
  
It's me. A perfectly composed female in righteous anger.  
  
"But I've paged you."   
  
And that would be my boyfriend, the voice of reason.  
  
"Well, I've left the pager at home, so what?!" Before he could interrupt, I remembered a handful of other things I wanted to mention as well. "You're always late on our dates. You never take me for who I am. You've stood me up for those pals of yours more than once. And during the entire time we've been dating, you've never kissed me!"  
  
All I got was a blank look. "KISS you!? You're FOURTEEN!"  
  
"Hey, I'm a big girl - "  
  
"You pretend to be big, while in truth you're the kid you're trying not to be." My soul mate gave a long sigh of exasperation. "Maybe that's the problem."  
  
I opened my mouth soundly. "KID?! Fine! I see it now. You want a CONVENIENT girlfriend? Well, excuse me, but I'm not going to pretend I like being treated like some bug under your feet!! Go find some WOMAN to suit you, because I don't care!"  
  
His eyes narrowed to angry slits. In ensuing silence he flashed me a look of utter disdain before turning and walking away from me. Broken, I limply slid down the gate of my house. Tears blurred before my eyes...  
  
Whose idea was it, anyway, to go on that trip to a CAVERN of all places?  
  
You bet. Mommy's.  
  
Don't get me wrong. Caves, rock carvings, and stalagmites are absolutely fascinating. At least, for some people they are.   
  
For people like my parents. You see, they were suddenly hit with this wonderful idea to spend a family weekend at a mountain resort for me to rest and put my mind off my breakup with Nobu. Being one with nature mends a broken heart, they said. They could have taken me to Yokohama all the same! I mean, I HAVE been in a depressive mode for the last couple of weeks because of Nobu, but... Fed up with my grumbling, Mom had asked me if I preferred a monastery. I guess you don't really need me to describe my answer in glorious details.  
  
I pressed the rubber button on my flashlight, identical to those that had been handed out to the members of the tour group. Waves of dust swam in the small beam of light as it traveled from one wall to another. Cold, icy dampness reigned the spooky cave...  
  
"Don't shake your flashlight! It gets into my eyes." In the electric light, Dad's eyes screwed up behind the thick lenses of his bifocals, giving him a gopher resemblance.  
  
I made a face, knowing full well that in this pitch-black darkness he wouldn't be able to see me.   
  
"Why did I even agree to come?" I moaned. "This thing gives me the creeps!"  
  
"Usagi." Dad turned on his best, sweetest voice. "We've skied, ski jumped, bob sleighed, climbed the mountains, gone sight-seeing, been to hot springs... Seeing some old cavern wouldn't hurt now, would it?"  
  
I shined the flashlight directly into his face. It was practically radiating enthusiasm.  
  
He sighed heavily. "Why did you come with us if you didn't want to?"  
  
Exasperatedly I threw my hands into the air. "Mommy said that this would be FUN!"  
  
The sound of Mom's awed squeal was heard clear all the way from the other end of the tunnel: "Ooh, would you just LOOK at this stalactite!!"  
  
DUH.  
  
"We better get going." Dad adjusted the strap of the video camera slung over his shoulder, and we quickened our pace to catch up with the tour group which had gotten slightly ahead of us. I concentrated my flashlight on his lanky behind clad in shorts in front of myself and thought how much I missed him. Working at one of Tokyo's most widely known magazines took its toll, I guess, as we hadn't been seeing much of our Dad lately. It seemed that he always had some deadlines to meet. So it had surprised us all when he had come home one night and said that he'd taken time off work so we could spend a whole weekend together, as a family. Family? My mom fed off my embarrassment, and my dear brother's very existence depended on whether or not he could catch me off guard with the big water guns. But, I decided finally, crazy family or not, I was going to enjoy this getaway thing even if it killed me!  
  
"Hey!" My brother Shingo noticed something in the nearby wall's niche. "There's some sort of a side-tunnel!" he exclaimed after having ducked over to look.  
  
"Kenji!" Mom called insistently from the front of the group.  
  
Dad looked back on Shingo and me. "Don't stay too far behind, okay? Coming, honey!" And he hurried on to excuse his way through the tourists and safely emerge next to Mom. She grabbed him by the elbow and started to excitedly tell him something.  
  
Shingo was still staring at the niche in front of him, which was a bit disturbing, since he'd never managed to keep still for a long time, and if he had, it meant TROUBLE.  
  
I was right, naturally, because a nasty smirk crossed his face.   
  
"Bet you wouldn't make it through there alive!" he said triumphantly.  
  
I bristled. "What makes you think so?!"  
  
"You're a coward, you know."  
  
"But - "  
  
"You'd pass out on the way!"  
  
I gritted my teeth. I placed one hand on the clammy wall for support and leaned over, pointing the flashlight into the narrow passage that lay ahead. It breathed of chilliness and slugs...  
  
I stumbled back. Shingo annoyingly wiggled his eyebrows, wearing a look that plainly said, 'Told ya!'  
  
I couldn't let that ten-year-old little monster who drooled in his sleep laugh at me!  
  
I filled up my lungs with stuffy air and slowly squeezed myself into the crack in the wall, clutching the only source of light to my chest. I straightened my back, sensing more space around me, and bumped my head on the ceiling. Grimacing, I raised my hand and felt along the top to find that the passage was big enough for me to walk bent at the waist. And so I carefully moved forward, counting the steps as I went. About sixty feet later, I crawled out to the opening, which I guessed was a large chamber, judging from the fact that the flashlight's beam got lost in the surrounding darkness and didn't reach the opposing walls.  
  
I turned around and held a hand to my mouth to shout into the tunnel, "Well, I made it!"  
  
  
  
An eerie echo accompanied my voice as it bounced off the walls of the corridor.  
  
  
  
There was a moment of silence. Then the chilly air carried over my brother's nasty voice: "Yeah, but you wouldn't have done it without the flashlight!"   
  
Acting on impulse, I flung the flashlight deep into the tunnel. It landed somewhere with a sharp twang, and with it went the light. I was plunged into immediate darkness.  
  
"That better?!" I cried.  
  
"But the problem's that you've already done it with the flashlight!"  
  
Overcome with sheer frustration, I stomped my foot on the hard stone floor. I'd let that little jerk get to me again!   
  
The ground humming beneath my feet didn't alert my senses. What did grab my undivided attention was a breaking sound that came from somewhere overhead. I let out a frightened squeak as something crashed down in front of me, and I jumped back with my heart in my soles. Then there was more of that awful cracking, rumbling and crashing.  
  
Did my little stomp cause that?!  
  
"What the hell?!" came a furiously cursing male voice through the ear-plugging booming. A thin ray of light cut across the thick blackness... and was consumed by it a few short moments afterwards.   
  
"Damn it, dead!" the same voice called out in annoyance.  
  
I felt something raw clinging to my throat and started coughing madly. "Who?!" I managed to gurgle, spitting out the dirt.  
  
"The flashlight!"  
  
The crashing subsided, and the... room?... grew temporarily quiet.  
  
I blinked painfully against the dust pricking at my eyes, desperately wishing that I hadn't thrown away the flashlight so I could see in the overwhelming, almost palpable darkness around me. "W-who's here?" I asked shakily, feeling the old fear of dark seeping through my defenses. Before he could answer, the ground gave a mighty shudder and started to thrash wildly, throwing me off balance.  
  
I shrieked and bolted into the general direction of the person's voice. I guess I missed him completely, because I slammed face first into the wall, just as more - rocks? - broke off the distant ceiling. Subdued by thunderous noise and as good as blind in the enclosing blackness, I cowered on the floor, feeling as if I were left in a tiny spot in a corner and the rest were covered with boulders. Clouds of dust rose from the ground, stuffing my already raw nose and eyes, causing me to break into a coughing fit.  
  
Amidst the havoc I heard the male voice speak up again to advise me, "Close your mouth and don't breathe!"   
  
Minutes or hours later, the living hell seemed to settle down, and I allowed myself to breathe, albeit shakily. So when I felt something latching onto my ankle, I proceeded to scream my lungs out.  
  
"Is this your hand?" the guy's hoarse voice sounded awfully close, interrupting my screeching.  
  
I lowered the decibels. "That's my FOOT," I informed him and coughed some more for good measure.  
  
Suddenly, both of his hands groped up my legs blindly.  
  
"Stop touching me!" I yelped hysterically.  
  
Small stones bumped me over the head.  
  
"Don't YELL," he offered in a rigid voice, finally finding my hands and clasping them in his tightly. Feeling someone near made me just a little bit more comforted. With that simple contact, I knew that at least I wasn't alone in this.  
  
"Do you have any idea what happened?" I whispered to my unseen ally. "Please?"  
  
His frustration won over. "Nothing!" he shouted at me. "Just the fact that there was a sudden seismic activity that had blocked up the tunnel, and now we're sealed off from the others in a chamber with no food, water, or light! That's what happened!"  
  
A cannonade of stones hit our heads.  
  
"I thought you said we shouldn't yell," I reminded him sourly.  
  
"That's you who came here screeching!" he retorted. "I was just standing here, admiring the works of nature, when..."   
  
Now this was too much!  
  
I yanked my hands out and folded my arms haughtily.  
  
"Are you saying this is my entire fault?!" I demanded.  
  
"No," he snapped.  
  
"But you're blaming me for what's happened!"  
  
"*I* am NOT blaming you!"  
  
"Go away," I scoffed at him angrily.  
  
I heard him getting to his feet, and his footsteps walking away from me as he probed the path to... someplace. Then I heard the sound of rubble being moved. As mad as I was, he was the only other person there with me, and besides, I couldn't just sit there alone in the darkness!  
  
I pushed myself up, cautiously crept over in the direction of the movement, and came upon a pile of rocks, presumably in front of the tunnel's entrance.  
  
"Whatever you're doing," I said carefully, "do you need any help with it?"  
  
"Try to help yourself," his low voice grunted out peevishly.  
  
Well, if he wasn't even attempting to be civil, why should I beg for his attention? He doesn't want to talk? Fine!  
  
Muttering under my breath, I felt around and finding a heavy rock grabbed it to drag off the stack. I think that the guy had dropped his stone just then, because it clomped down on my foot.   
  
After I calmed down from screaming and jumping up and down, I noted that the noises from his side had ceased. I waved my hand blindly in front of myself and accidentally batted at his face.  
  
"What're you doing?" I whispered, afraid to raise my voice in the ringing silence.  
  
"Shh," he hissed at me. "I want to find out if we can hear the others from here..."  
  
"You mean - "  
  
"SHH!" His hand caught my throat in a stranglehold!  
  
I wiggled frantically, fighting to breathe, and was overcome by another coughing fit.  
  
"Ugh, sorry!" He jerked his hand away hastily, sounding genuinely apologetic for once, proof of him being human, after all. "I meant for it to be your mouth... um..."  
  
We listened to the dead silence and the quiet, slow dripping of the water from the ceiling. Other than that, we didn't hear a thing...  
  
"It's useless," he proclaimed with an air of finality.  
  
"But we still can try to clear the tunnel," I suggested hopefully as panic slowly settled its dead weight into my stomach.  
  
"No. That corridor is at least sixty feet long. We'll need about a month to do the work with just bare hands and no tools."  
  
"Then... then we can just wait for the others to sort out the passage..." My voice shook.  
  
He drew in a heavy and impatient sigh.  
  
"The earthquake has shaken the entire cavern," he informed me. "I don't think that they'd be dumb enough to try to rescue some two idiots who had enough guts to get stuck in a chamber. And by that time we'll be dead."   
  
"Could've been a little more optimistic," I grumbled sarcastically.  
  
"And why should I be optimistic when the facts speak for themselves, may I ask?" he replied gruffly.  
  
Like he's giving me some hope of survival! Does he even WANT to get out of here? Who is this guy to be so... so... cold-blooded?!  
  
"Who are you?" I questioned the darkness in annoyance.  
  
An audible silence fell over the cave. Finally, he answered idly, "Chiba Mamoru... Now you'll want to know do I have a girlfriend, what car do I drive, and am I rich, right?"  
  
Why, you!  
  
"Why would I want to?" I wrinkled up my nose, forgetting that he couldn't see me.  
  
He smirked. "Well, you asked my name, didn't you?"  
  
"I just wanted to know with whom I have to spend my last hours." And I returned to the fascinating activity also known as clearing out an obstruction. Without spitting out a single word through that mouth of his, the guy set back to work, too. Only our occasional grunting and yelps disturbed the silence whenever a boulder would squash our feet.  
  
When we sorted out a couple of feet, I settled down by the entrance to rest for a while. In a few moments I heard a tired sigh.  
  
"We can't get any farther," came from the passageway.   
  
"Why?" I squeaked, shaken into paralysis.   
  
"Because there's this huge rubble the size of the corridor. If only we had some dynamite..." he drawled wistfully, and I imagined him shaking his head. "The rescuers will have to make sure they blow up the thing without having the ceiling break off at us in the process...."  
  
I whipped my head up. "Would you stop thinking about DEATH?!"  
  
All was silent for a moment, except for the cavern mockingly echoing my words.  
  
He let out a few sorrowful laughs. "Well, that's what awaits us."  
  
I couldn't help it. Two salty drops escaped my eyes as a tight knot formed in my throat. "But I don't want to DIE here with YOU!" I whimpered. Okay, maybe I was being childish.  
  
"I know," he agreed dryly. "Unfortunately, we don't get a choice in what people's company we'll end our lives. Especially whining, whimpering, female crybabies."  
  
I'm sure that the clack my teeth emitted when I clenched them was broadcast throughout the entire chamber.  
  
He proved me right. "Don't break your teeth."  
  
That was the last straw.  
  
I leaped to my feet, fully intent on strangling that sarcastic voice until his eyes would pop out on threads, and hit my head on a stalactite. "I'm - ow! - I'm never going to speak with you again!" I announced with as much dignity as I could muster and determinedly marched out into the endless dark lying ahead, one hand reaching up to rub my skull...  
  
Only once I'd moved out far enough to lose sense of that guy's presence did I realize that everywhere around me was the darkness. I stood still, and wherever I looked was the same weighing, almost tangible, black stuff pressing at all sides. My mind readily supplied me with images from all those horror movies that Naru had forced me to watch on Friday nights, where meaty tentacles and toothy, hairy monsters hid in the dark, waiting for little girls to drop by...  
  
Shuddering, I wrapped my arms around myself and decided against venturing out farther in search of walls that should have been there. Instead, I felt my way over to the corner to the right of the blocked entrance, slumped down, and rested my chin on my knees. Time crept by, marked by each drop of the water pelting the floor with sickening precision. Unwelcome thoughts inevitably started coming up, but I absolutely refused to just admit defeat and let myself wallow in self-pity, like that guy masochist over there obviously had. Apparently he didn't know my parents - if their little bunny were so much as laid a finger on, the last things the offender heard and saw would be Mom's scandalized shrieks and the barrel of Dad's gun pointed in his nose. I had nothing to worry about. I was pretty sure that right at that moment, my parents were shaking up the head of the rescue teams. The image of good old Dad grabbing some poor guy by the lapels and demanding that he find his little girl or die brought a brief smile to my lips. Any time now we would be freed. Right?  
  
Something pricked my eye, and I rubbed at it with dusty hands, probably smearing the dirt across my face, but what did it matter? After all, there was no one there to see me!  
  
I brushed off my palms at the shorts I was wearing and pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers, massaging it lightly, and closed my eyes, wondering how much time had passed since the accident. I felt so tired...  
  
My breath caught as something cold and slimy crawled up my foot.  
  
Augghh!! It's a monster! A big, gooey monster! And it's got me!!!  
  
I sprang to my feet and started hysterically kicking around to shake the thing off, but it wouldn't release its death grip on my ankle. Desperate to get rid of it, I reached down to clench my hands around whatever it was, ripped the thing off my sneaker, and sent the... SLUG flying to paste onto the nearby wall with a squishy smack.   
  
Gods, it was just a SLUG! And I was making a total fool of myself in front of the -   
  
"Quit dancing around!" I heard the guy muttering in the other corner.  
  
- Oh.  
  
I lowered myself back to the floor.  
  
Okay, Usagi. Relax. Everything's fine! That monomaniacal jerk over there isn't a problem! Everything's going to be just fine until a new 'case of seismic activity' occurs...  
  
I vaguely acknowledged the slight grumbling of the ground underneath my butt. There had been enough of those rumblings already and none of them had preceded...  
  
RUMBLE... RUMBLE... CRASH!  
  
The stone floor abruptly switched from peaceful vibration to a mad-toss-round. Boulders and rocks started falling down from the invisible ceiling, causing the dust to go up in clouds again. I shrank into the wall behind me, feeling its rigid hardness. I couldn't see what was happening and that was a good thing, or my hair would have stood on the ends...  
  
Startled, I heard a distinct cracking sound directly above me and before I knew it, a fragment of a stalactite had collided with my head. A strange ringing sound exploded between my eyes; I felt as though I were watching myself from some other place, seeing myself stagger to the side and collapse on the floor, barely a second before I blacked out, though it was hard to believe that it was possible to get even blacker than it already was...  
  
2 HOURS 31 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
I stirred in my sleep, my head resting on a pillow, feeling a heavy headache starting to settle in. The first thing that I heard when my consciousness cleared up from the hazy fog was silence.   
  
Silence? Where's the sound of traffic? And why is it so dark in my room? I always leave the bedside lamp on...  
  
The electricity has gone off?  
  
I tried to sit up in my bed, but found two arms crossed loosely over my stomach.  
  
I gulped.  
  
What I assumed was a pillow was actually a guy's... thighs.  
  
I opened my eyes, stark awake. Memories of the accident in the cave flooded my mind. HE sensed me conscious and asked softly, "You okay?"  
  
I started to reply something but broke off when a vicious coughing fit racked my chest, so instead I just nodded. I think he felt it, because he nodded, too, and drew his right hand away to place it on my throbbing head. "There's a scrape." I winced as he gently touched my wound. "I suppose you've hit your head pretty hard," he murmured.  
  
I wasn't paying much attention to his words. My head felt like a hundred shrine bells were ringing inside it, and one thought kept resounding through the racket: 'It's so warm... and comfortable... Could have been sitting in his lap a long time ago...'  
  
'Usagi, WHAT are you thinking about?' I scolded myself and quickly pulled to a sitting position. This time, he let me go. I scrambled over to perch at his side with my back pressed against the... wall, I guess.  
  
"You know," he drawled, his voice addressing the darkness. "I still... um... don't know your name."  
  
Gotcha! Oh, I mean... How conceited, huh?  
  
I turned my head to face away from him. "Tsukino Usagi."  
  
"Really?" If I'd been able to put my eyes to use, I'd probably have seen twinkles of laughter gleaming in his eyes... because I could feel them in his voice.  
  
"Yes." What's it with me that I can't tone my voice when needed?  
  
"Seriously?"  
  
"YES."  
  
He stifled a few giggles. "A rabbit! Say, bunny, have you got some sort of ears on that cute little head of yours?"  
  
Cute... what?!  
  
This guy keeps getting on my nerves!  
  
"We're not speaking, remember?" I made an honest, really honest attempt at sounding angry.  
  
"No problem." He probably grinned...  
  
3 HOURS 05 MINUTES SINCE OBSTRUCTION  
  
"So who're your parents?" I asked for the sake of saying something.  
  
"They're parents," he replied stiffly.  
  
"No, I mean, what do they do for a living?" I prodded him.  
  
"Exactly nothing."  
  
"Meaning - "  
  
He cut me off. "Meaning they're DEAD."  
  
Good going, Usagi! Tying a perfect conversation with the guy, you know?  
  
"And who are your parents?" He successfully changed the subject.  
  
I breathed gratefully. "Well, my Dad's a magazine editor, and Mom's... well, she's a housewife. Oh, and I've got a brother, Shingo - "  
  
"I've heard him," he pointed out.  
  
The realization dawned on me. "You know, this is all his fault! If he hadn't dared me to go through the tunnel - "  
  
" - and if you hadn't been stupid enough to go there..." he finished lightly.  
  
Another slap at my face.  
  
"Then what were YOU doing here?!" I hissed at him.  
  
He gracefully deflected my attack. "I just wanted to inspect a chamber, and that's what we came here for originally."   
  
I pushed out my breath through ground teeth. "WE," I told him, "are NOT SPEAKING." I turned my back on him... which physically had no effect considering that he couldn't see me...  
  
3 HOURS 57 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
"I wonder how much time's passed," I thought aloud.  
  
"I should have timed the minutes from the start..." He sighed deeply beside me.  
  
I listened to the 'tap, tap' of the water as it slipped from the ceiling and struck the ground, and suddenly an idea knocked me over the head like a hammer. What if -  
  
"Hey!" he exclaimed excitedly into my ear. "We can check the time with the droplet! It falls once per minute!"  
  
I imagined us counting the drops for two days straight...  
  
"No... We'll be counting those drops for two days in a row..." He sighed exasperatedly.  
  
Engrossed in chewing over my own misery, I felt like kicking myself.  
  
"The time!" I cried out. "For pity's sake, we can tell the time with our watches!"  
  
"Yours with backlight?" he asked ironically.  
  
"With...? No."  
  
"That's what I'm saying."  
  
"What about yours?" I grunted.  
  
"Yup. With backlight. Only the batteries are dead; I forgot to change them," he added with melancholy humor.  
  
I slouched in defeat and thought of us sitting here, waiting for death to come and claim our bony exhausted bodies, our minds gone mad with catching the sound of the water dripping from the cold confines of our prison, and slugs would feed off the remains of our rotted corpses...  
  
"Wait!" the guy shouted unexpectedly, breaking the lovely picture. "Is your watch digital or with hands?"   
  
I blinked a few times. "With hands... why?"  
  
"Give me that!" He groped for my left hand, unfastened the belt, and took the watch feverishly. Then some scratching sounds ensued.  
  
"Just WHAT are you doing with my watch?!" I demanded incredulously.  
  
"I can open it to feel the small and big hands to tell the time!" I suppose that he bit his teeth into the poor watch, because I heard a horrible grinding noise.  
  
"It's plastic," I decided to put in that useful bit of information.  
  
"Good," he growled, "plastic." Enraged, he felt around for something - a stone? - and knocked it on my ill-fated watch. I listened with interest. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "It's... one o'clock..."  
  
"Four hours," I said in disbelief. We've been here for four hours?  
  
"Dang!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"It stopped."  
  
"[censored]!"  
  
4 HOURS 32 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
"Boy, I'm thirsty..." I moaned.  
  
"I have an idea!" He got up, and something whacked me in the nose. Realizing that he was holding out his hand, I blindly reached out for it. His hand, so warm and large, confidently enfolded my clammy and shaky one, and he pulled me to my feet and led into the darkness, still reassuringly squeezing my hand. I inwardly beat myself up at the strange thoughts that that gesture provoked.  
  
So we walked around the cavern, our ears homing in onto the sound of the droplet. Once we were relatively sure we had the right location, we threw back our heads and took turns standing under the stalactite, waiting to devour the single drop of water that fell into our mouths. Of course, that didn't kill our thirst, but at least we'd watered our dried out throats and were now able to keep up some semblance of a conversation.  
  
5 HOURS 53 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
Drop.  
  
Drop.  
  
Drop.  
  
I listened to how the echo of a simple droplet was heard throughout the entire chamber and imagined what sounds my next action would bring up... All right, it didn't matter, because I just couldn't hold it off any longer! I didn't care what he'd think!  
  
Determinedly I stood up from the place by him and groped the way to where I knew a heap of stones was. Okay, I knew that he couldn't see me, but that's beside the point!   
  
Unwaveringly I unbuttoned my shorts.  
  
"Hey, where are you?" he asked worriedly.  
  
"Uh - um, I'll be back in a minute!" I crouched down on the floor and heard him moving.  
  
"Do you need any help out there?" he inquired uncertainly.  
  
Yes, I do! Come here and help me to...  
  
I burst out giggling, and it FLOWED... I think that the sound could be heard in the teeniest cracks in the cave. No movement came from his side. And it kept going and going...   
  
At last when I had finished, I proceeded slowly in his direction. "Uh?" I said.  
  
A powerful stream hit the wall, and he started giggling.  
  
I clutched at my stomach, trying to suppress the hysterical laughing.  
  
7 HOURS 2 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
Now he was singing.  
  
"Uh...?" I questioned.  
  
"I know it's stupid, but what else have we got to do?" he answered. "It's something I've been hearing on the radio for weeks."  
  
That he couldn't sing was pretty obvious to my poor ears but I had to admit that he had a rich, soft voice to make up for that, though.  
  
My normal reaction was to yawn, of course.  
  
He stopped in the middle of a verse. "Maybe you should have some sleep?" he asked, a gentle note creeping in.  
  
Gentle.  
  
I suppose that my silence was too awkward. So, I decided to ask a normal, absolutely ordinary question, "WHERE?"  
  
His hand found mine and patted his lap with it.  
  
A sweat drop rolled down my nose.  
  
I'M TOUCHING A GUY'S LAP.  
  
OH, BOY.  
  
  
  
Well, actually... No problem!  
  
I scrambled into the position between his legs and laid my tired head down on his warm body. "Are you sure you won't feel lonely or anything?"  
  
"Don't worry, I won't." His arms came around me, and I snuggled deeper into his warmth. He took a breath, and his singing voice echoed in the dark...  
  
"Thanks," I whispered sleepily, closed my eyes, and... was in the world of dreams in just a matter of seconds... not thinking about any guys... or their laps...  
  
9 HOURS 36 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
I was brought out of my restless slumber by the slight rumbling beneath me. It's not that I haven't gotten used to it after living my whole life in Japan, and especially after having to survive that time in the cavern...  
  
The cavern!  
  
Now fully awake, I found myself lapped on the guy again, surrounded by the same darkness. I heaved a sigh. But, really - what would happen to us if another obstruction happened? I mean, it has occurred once, and twice even. What if a rock falls on us and squashes us to smashed goo of limbs and intestines?  
  
I hastily glanced upwards. Pitch-dark.  
  
And it started. Even more violent and severe than before. Crashes, rumbles, and dust were everywhere, all over again. I leaped up and stumbled blindly to the nearest corner, shrieking frantically something about us dying here like two mice cornered in a hole, it wasn't fair, and augghhh!  
  
"Shut up, would you!?" he shouted exasperatedly. I quieted down to soft sobs, petrified by the booming all around me and the sounds of things bursting and banging and thundering. The guy made a noise, but whatever it was that he was about to say was cut off when he released a pain-filled cry in the same moment that I heard a hollow knock and - I screamed helplessly - the sound of bones cracking.   
  
I was left completely stricken for the few minutes that it took for the earthquake to subside.   
  
I parted my parched lips, afraid to breathe. "M-Mamoru?" I whispered shakily.  
  
The dreadful silence and absolute lack of presence other than of my own, was my answer. With a crystal clear clarity, I realized that he was dead and now I was completely, utterly alone. And that I was to die here on my own.  
  
"Mamoru?" I called out brokenly, desperate to hear his soft voice telling me sarcastically that I was being a crybaby and that at least we'd die together.  
  
I slumped to my knees, feeling hot tears course down my cheeks. What should I do now? It was my fault... He'd died because of me! I should have dragged him with me and not let him stay in that place... And now he was...  
  
I exploded in the heart-wrenching sobs.  
  
"That's very touching, but if you'll care to notice, I'm not dead yet."  
  
I blinked blindly against the hands in which I'd hidden my face. Slowly, unbelievingly, I raised my head. "Ma... M-Ma..."  
  
His voice sounded like the angels singing. "Yes, I'm here," came from somewhere on my left.  
  
Overwhelmed by exhilarating happiness, I picked myself off the floor and dashed in his direction. Some five steps later my foot caught on something on the floor and I went flying, arms windmilling frantically, straight to the cold ground.  
  
A massive moan was released when instead of the hard floor my body met Mamoru's laying sprawled.  
  
"Sorry," I mumbled awkwardly into his warm chest. Fresh tears sprung to my eyes at the thought that he could have been dead this very minute. Impulsively, I flung my arms around him and pressed myself to him, sobbing incoherently.  
  
"I thought you were dead..."  
  
After a moment's notice, he carefully placed his large palm on my back. Sniffing involuntarily, I realized that I'd wet the entire front of his shirt and that he was clenching his teeth.  
  
"What is it?" I asked worriedly.  
  
"My foot," he managed to pronounce through gritted teeth.  
  
I didn't understand. "What foot?"  
  
"My BROKEN foot," he breathed heavily.  
  
"Oh, Gods!" I hurriedly scrambled to get my weight off him. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea..."  
  
"Calm down. It's not your fault. Maybe it's not even broken."  
  
I couldn't bear it. He'd just survived a life or death experience, I was the cause of that, and he was the one trying to make me feel better?  
  
The least I could do was try to help him.  
  
"Can I do something?"  
  
He didn't answer, but I figured that he'd nodded.  
  
"How?"  
  
He propped himself up slightly and groped around for something. Finding my hand, he moved it to touch his booted left foot.  
  
"What do you want me to do? Take off the boot?"  
  
His fingers gave my hand a squeeze.  
  
Painstakingly aware of the pain I was inflicting on him, I loosened the shoelaces and as carefully as possible pulled the boot and then the sock off his swollen foot.   
  
"Now what?"  
  
Instead of answering me, he sat up and reached forward. I knew that he was feeling his foot by the agonizing sounds that escaped his mouth. I shut my eyes against the darkness, tears pricking at their corners.  
  
After what seemed like forever, he leaned back, panting.  
  
"It's broken, isn't it?" I whispered in a tearful and shaking voice.  
  
"The..." He took one, two laborious breaths. "The bone's misplaced. You'll place it back."  
  
I gasped, absolutely horrified. "What? No way!"  
  
But even as I said that, I knew that there was no other way. There was no one besides me to do it, and by refusing to help him I could cripple him for life. I had no choice.  
  
A tight knot forming in my throat, I took his ankle in my shaking hands. In a hoarse, strained voice, he started to explain what I had to do. Never the one to club a mosquito, I absolutely hated myself for what I was doing to him. In total darkness, with trembling hands that refused to obey me and his instructions as my only guide, I did it. One last yank and it was over. One final scream echoed off the walls of darkness and he collapsed back to the ground, completely spent.  
  
"Mamoru?" I whispered.  
  
Silence.  
  
Oh, no, don't even think about it! You're not going to die on me here after what I've survived for your sake!  
  
I crawled around him and lightly shook him by the shoulder. He didn't move.  
  
What if he's gone into a shock because of the pain?  
  
Terrified, I settled down and stretched my legs out before me, then slipped my hands under his armpits and pulled him over to rest against myself.  
  
"Mamoru?!" I grabbed his clammy hand and clutched him to my chest, rocking back and forth, chanting helplessly, "Don't die, oh, please, don't die..."  
  
Long fingers clenched my hand so hard I thought it'd break, but I held on nonetheless and started laughing and crying at the same time.   
  
I almost didn't hear him murmur hoarsely, "Thank you."   
  
"You scared me!" I accused him, tears streaming down my nose. "Don't you ever do that again!"  
  
"Well, I just might do it again to see you cry over the loss of my young life," he uttered, amusement lacing his scratchy voice.  
  
Oh, he was alive, all right!  
  
11 HOURS 1 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
His sweaty and heavy head was pillowed on my lap, and I was stroking my hand through his... whatever color it was hair. I knew that it was sweet and soft to the touch, like rabbit's fur...  
  
"Please, talk to me..." came Mamoru's low and husky voice.  
  
"Or what?" I teased.  
  
"Or I'll die," he replied.  
  
I gave him a hard yank on his hair.   
  
"Hey! What was that for?"  
  
"For future reference," I said smugly.  
  
"Crybaby."  
  
"Fatalistic monomaniac."  
  
"Capricious harebrain."  
  
"Manic depressive psycho."  
  
"Manic optimistic lunatic."  
  
Ooh!  
  
14 HOURS 13 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
What seemed like hours later, we knew everything about each other, starting from his childhood flu and ending with the recent death of my pet hamster. His voice was strained yet controlled as he described what it was like to be brought up in an orphanage and know that the only family you had had perished in a car accident and you were the sole survivor. Determined when he talked about studying genetic engineering in college and making plans for the future. Pensive while listening to me tell stories about my crazy family. Laughing at my love for the Godly Driving video game, the one where you smash into electric posts, they crash to the side, but you drive on. ("Quite unrealistic," he commented. "That's the beauty of it!" I smiled.)  
  
Now I could think of no more topics to discuss, and constant pangs of hunger weren't helping things. The only thing that kept coming to my mind was this song about a bunny who was a lunatic, the one that my Grandma and Mommy and Daddy sang to me when I was three years old, refused to sleep and eat, and drove everybody insane... Anyway, I began singing that lullaby.   
  
Mamoru went limp. "Please, continue the concert..." he murmured groggily and settled more comfortably against me.   
  
15 HOURS 31 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
The unknown time later I ran out of the entire supply of songs I'd memorized. Mamoru was drowsing restlessly on my lap, the swollen foot obviously disturbing his sleep. I sat with my hands placed on his shoulders, back stiff against the stone wall.   
  
However hard I tried to swat it off, one persistent thought kept grazing my mind. What if Mamoru would turn out to be some ugly, beer-bellied guy? Well, he had a nice physique, that much I could tell, but what about his face? Of course we'd helped each other out in this and our appearances shouldn't really be important, and since he was in college he couldn't be THAT old. And it's what is on the inside that matters. Right?  
  
Since he was asleep...  
  
I lifted my hands from his shoulders and gingerly touched the sides of his face, then passed my fingers over the line of his jaw. It felt strong and protruded a little, but thankfully I encountered only slight stubble and not a trace of a beard...  
  
15 HOURS 33 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
* MAMORU *  
  
Something touched my chin.   
  
A mosquito?  
  
I opened my eyes.  
  
Wait - why is my bed so rough? And why is it so dark? And why is my pillow so warm?  
  
The ever present tapping of the drop of water reached my ears, and with a start I realized where I was. In that damn cavern. In one single moment I discovered that the soft thing under my head was Usagi's lap, and her light and delicate fingers were traveling over my face's features.  
  
Oh, Gods...  
  
She was tracing my brows and the timely closed lids of my eyes, then gliding over my forehead and flaming cheeks... All of a sudden I found myself alternately turning hot and cold with her gentle touch. Something bloomed inside of me... spread and grew into a glittering and warm feeling... And when her cold fingers drew the lines of my lips, without thinking I pressed them to her tips tenderly.  
  
Her hands stopped dead in their tracks. In a matter of seconds she jerked them off. "You weren't sleeping!?" she cried out fearfully.  
  
She was afraid of what she was doing... I was glad that she... that she wanted to... but first I wanted to calm her down.  
  
Clenching my teeth against the racking pain in my left foot, I moved off of her to sit beside her then glanced into the general darkness of her direction.  
  
"Look, it's absolutely all right that you wanted to know how I look," I said reassuringly. "It's a totally natural and logical reaction..." She sensed the motion of the air when, gulping, I reached for her.  
  
She held her breath. "What're you doing?" she whispered, frightened.   
  
I bit into the inside of my cheek and drew a deep breath. "May I..." I stammered. "May I... feel your face... in return?"  
  
I took the tomb silence that ensued as a yes and placed my palm on her cheek... Touched her tilted upwards little nose and stroked along her thin eyebrows, lightly caressing her smooth skin. Her eyelashes fluttered shyly against my fingers like butterfly wings.  
  
"You have such long lashes," I murmured quietly. "What color are your eyes?"  
  
"Blue," her lips uttered. She wasn't breathing.  
  
Down her temple and cheekbone, I could feel her heart's mad beat on her tender neck... When I uncertainly touched her lips, she parted them slightly and convulsively let out the air she'd been holding. Her heated breath hit my cold hand... I couldn't control myself anymore. I leaned over and kissed her trembling lips...   
  
15 HOURS 38 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
* USAGI *  
  
...He was gently feeling my face's contours, like a blind person would. I stopped breathing, afraid that if I dared to move I'd somehow end the wondrous sensations that his hands were provoking in me. He stroked down my face to linger on my neck, where I could feel his fingertips with every beat of my heart.   
  
His fingers tenderly traced the curve of my lips in a slow, tantalizing motion, and I felt I'd die from the overwhelming emotions. Was this how I made him feel?   
  
Suddenly, his fingers withdrew and something much warmer pressed gently to my lips... like a pair of fingers... But he had already... and it was too soft to be...  
  
HIS LIPS!  
  
Frantically, I pulled back - banging my head at the stone wall.  
  
Moaning, I rubbed my poor skull.  
  
"What? Did I - did I hurt you?" Mamoru asked me worriedly.  
  
"No, I... um..." My already desert-dry throat grew even sorer, because when I cast my eyelids apart, I saw his face mere inches from mine. His deep, dark blue eyes were wide-opened. His black, like a raven's wing, hair was messy and stuck up in strange and funny angles. He seemed to remind me of a puppy that was just about to sniff on some grass and was mercilessly yanked back by his collar. But Gods, wasn't he handsome..? Those endless eyelashes, the line of his masculine chin... well defined, strong, and slightly opened lips... engulfed in a reddish glow...  
  
REDDISH GLOW?!  
  
We whipped our heads in the direction where the strange light was streaming from...  
  
Not a foot from my right hand, where the floor and the wall met, was... a small puddle of...  
  
"AAUUUGGHHH!!!"  
  
...steaming lava.  
  
16 HOURS 19 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
* MAMORU *  
  
No matter how many stones we had piled up in that crack in the wall, the lava still managed to seep through. The tiny glowing creek that it had been at first was slowly turning into a small river.  
  
"What did I ever do to deserve this?" Usagi collapsed to the floor, eyes helplessly trained on the stream of lava that had been merely a trickle not more than half an hour ago. "Why did this have to happen to me? We'll all die here!"  
  
I smiled sadly. "'All'?.. But it's just the two of us."  
  
In reply, tears spilled out of her beautiful bloodshot blue eyes...  
  
Okay, man, it's all right. She's in a panic. Women always panic. And I'll start panicking pretty soon, too.  
  
"Usagi." I put my hand on her small, quivering shoulder. "Let's try to get more stones to block the crack, okay?"  
  
She sniffed shakily. Sucking in a big portion of oxygen and hiccupping bravely, she rose to her feet and headed to the opposite wall to where a large heap of boulders was. Wincing, I made one unsteady step toward her, intending to help her.  
  
She raised her watery gaze at me. "Stay where you are. I'll manage by myself."  
  
I started to protest, but she cut me off.  
  
"Your foot..." She was about to add something, but I saw her bite her lip, and she went on in a softened voice, "Get some rest." She turned away so I couldn't see her tear-streaked face and demonstratively lifted an exceptionally big rock.  
  
I start liking this girl more and more... Too bad if everything will turn out as I think it will...  
  
17 HOURS 45 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
* USAGI *  
  
It's all useless! Nothing and no one will help us! We'll die here of lack of air or boil up alive in the lava... It's... it's all so unfair! And the fact that Mamoru is so... gorgeous, gentle... okay, irresistible certainly doesn't help my emotional turmoil, period.  
  
I've never met any boys like him, and now when I finally MET one...  
  
WHY!?  
  
19 HOURS 28 MINUTES AFTER OBSTRUCTION  
  
* MAMORU *  
  
We had blocked every existing hole and crack in the chamber. We didn't leave one single stone lying that could be lifted and carried to be put in the pile. But, the lava seethed through, leaving melted steaming stones in its wake. The air turned heavy and scalding. I watched the eerie reddish glow play in Usagi's golden tangled hair...  
  
My mind came awash with jumbled thoughts and rapid emotions. Of course I knew that there was still a chance that the rescue teams could clear out the obstruction, but it's wiser to prepare for the worst, and I preferred it that way. When faced directly with the possibility of my life ending, here and now, I wasn't overcome with panic. Maybe it was the pre-hysteric reaction. With a clear mind, I thought back to the events of my emotionless, empty life, idly realizing that if I remained here forever, not that many people would even notice my absence. My fellow students and teachers, maybe, when I'd fail to walk into class in the morning. My landlord, obviously, when he wouldn't receive the monthly rent pay. My boss, furiously noting that he was one worker short. And Motoki, when I'd not stop by the Crown's arcade to mull over the day over the usual cup of cappuccino. All my life, I strove to survive, devoting myself to work and school, to be independent, and not to rely on someone who might walk out the door and disappear. I'd come to grips about my dying here, because I didn't have much to lose. Yet...  
  
I cast a glance at Usagi. She was sitting with her back pressed to the wall, knees bent underneath her, staring into space. Her eyes were blue... and glassy. Catching my gaze on her, they instantly warmed up and melted into two large teardrops that streaked down her dirty cheeks.  
  
And she had something to lose. Her loving, if a bit freaky family. Friends with whom she smiled and giggled. A happy life every second of which wasn't wasted but filled with light, laughter, and so much more to come. What had she done to deserve to have it all taken away?! She hadn't even begun to live!   
  
Cringing against the pain in my foot, I lowered myself down before Usagi. I watched her face carefully, then reached out, and brushed her dripping tears off gently with the back of my hand, leaving an even dirtier trace.  
  
"You do know what awaits us here," I said quietly. "Do you?"  
  
She nodded mournfully. "I'm not a kid, you know."  
  
I couldn't make myself meet her gaze and nearly missed her whispering, "I wish this didn't have to end that way..."  
  
I sucked in the stuffy air. "What do you mean... 'this'?" I asked apprehensively.  
  
She shrugged her shoulders and hastily glanced away. "Well... this..." Her voice rang like shattered glass, and unshed tears could be heard in those two words.  
  
Silence hung between us. I mean, what do you reply to such an obvious thing?  
  
I swallowed and took her hands, which lay weakly in her lap, and they scared me. Scared me because they were cold as ice although it was intensely hot in our prison.   
  
How was I supposed to tell her that I too wished, with all my heart, that this didn't have to end that way? That as much as I didn't want her to die here, she'd made me discover that I found something worth living for as well?   
  
I lowered my head and, feeling my eyes swelling with tears, buried my face into the cool cup of her palms...  
  
Her breathing ceased. I could feel her heart leaping in her small hands...  
  
Realization dawned on me, striking like a clap of thunder. This was her... her, my part, the piece of my soul that I'd been looking for my entire life, never knowing that I had... The girl that I needed, the girl that I wanted... The girl that I wanted to touch and hold forever, knowing that I could always gaze into those enormously beautiful cerulean eyes, knowing that those innocently sweet lips would always tremble at my touch because she was mine...  
  
I desperately pressed my lips to her tiny palms again and again, pain sweeping over me...  
  
She leaned over, and her quivering velvety lips buried softly into the hair at the nape of my neck...  
  
...and I was hers.  
  
Electricity shot through my veins, and suddenly I sensed her icy hands flaring with warmth. Even with closed eyelids, the piercing light that emitted from her palms blinded me.  
  
And I remembered...  
  
She and I... hundreds of years ago...   
  
She, so utterly distant and beyond the reach of the mortals...  
  
Became so unbelievably near, so unimaginably close...  
  
The small house strewn over with moonlight and cherry blossoms...  
  
Our deaths upon the blood-stained ruins of the Silver Millennium...  
  
Princess of the Moon Kingdom, Serenity...  
  
And I, Endymion...  
  
The light disappeared.  
  
Wearily I opened my eyes and saw hers... wide in amazement and... recognition...  
  
"Serenity," I whispered.  
  
Her lips parted, but never said anything. She raised a faint hand to touch my cheek...  
  
Something fell from her palms, landing with a short tinkle on the stony floor.  
  
Her hand froze in the stifling air, frail fingers shaking.  
  
I clasped my own hand about the item. It was a golden locket shaped as a five-pointed star with a tiny lid in the center. Slowly I opened it. Ivory-yellow light streamed out; a crescent moon swirled in the middle, glowing. A soft and gentle melody chimed, a melody that I've heard a thousand times... thousands of years ago...  
  
I remembered it. The locket that she had given me... right before we died...  
  
Tears were clinging to Serenity's half-closed eyes. She closed my fingers over the golden medallion and whispered in a pained and hoarse voice, "Put it away."  
  
I slipped the gold star into my jeans' pocket as my fingers enclosed her small hand, and leaned over to kiss her wrist. And I understood... She's the one. I found her. The princess that has possessed my dreams since I recall myself... If I'd just... Oh, if I'd just known who she was, and who was I... Then I'd have found her so much sooner... And now...   
  
Pain constricted my throat.  
  
I couldn't force myself to witness her eyes after I ripped my lips away from her soft skin. And then she surrounded my neck with her thin arms, and, letting out a faltering sigh, hid her face in my chest.   
  
I twined my fingers into her shaggy and warm blonde strands, cradling her head in my hands and urging her to raise her beautiful eyes, drinking in the sight of her face... wet and even more real and beautiful. And I leaned in, taking her closer to kiss away all those tears, all that pain she had suffered... I carefully caressed her satiny long lashes with my lips, tasting the slipping tear. Then she moved in, offering me her lips, dry and asking. I couldn't resist. And I knew that she was mine. Forever. Because we couldn't die. We wouldn't die. For I'm... Endymion. And for I love her.  
  
A steel crown of weighing darkness fell off my head, and the last mists of oblivion dissolved, releasing me. Almost unconsciously, I rose to my feet, leaving Usagi there, on the rocky floor. Strange, but I didn't feel pain in my foot. Then I waited. For what?   
  
I guess for a scarlet rose petal to come fluttering before my nose. In a cave?  
  
And suddenly I grabbed at my chest as something pricked it sharply. I saw beams of red light streaming between my fingers and clenched a fist. The light thickened and formed a stem of a flower, which bloomed at the end with blood-red petals...  
  
I was holding... a rose.  
  
I shifted a numb stare at Usagi. She was sitting there, hopeful and sure of me. Gods, but she knew what I was going to do, although I hadn't the faintest idea what she was thinking of.  
  
She nodded at me approvingly.  
  
I found myself nodding back. (?)  
  
I took a good look of that flower. Then I swung back my arm for something I absolutely didn't understand and thrust the rose into the wall. To my surprise, the little red flower PIERCED the wall made of STONE with its STEM.  
  
I couldn't get it. Is it a titan stem or what? But it's green...  
  
I stepped closer to witness the wonder. Usagi tiptoed up behind me. And then we saw it. Heard it. Cracks, small cracks spiraling away from the hole that the 'titan' stem had punctured. The creaking started and grew louder, and the cracks spun faster yet...  
  
We leaped back just as the entire wall CREAKED ominously and crashed down before us, producing no sound at all. Only piles of dust.   
  
Once the dust bunnies had settled down and Usagi had gotten over her coughing fit, we realized that before us was the... tunnel. A very long, wide, and dark tunnel. A dot of light marked its end. Some bird flew by...  
  
Usagi and I exchanged looks.   
  
And we ran.  
  
I mean, I limped ahead.  
  
Limped?   
  
My foot was burning with fresh pain...   
  
Usagi frantically grabbed a hold of me and, grunting...  
  
"HURRAY!! WE'RE OUTTA HERE!!!" I screamed with joy.  
  
We stumbled out of the tunnel to be blinded by the rising sun peeking over the mountains, submerging the peaks and clouds in peach light. Various birds were chirping carelessly. Somewhere below people in orange vests and helmets were roaming around.   
  
Usagi was there, beside me. Smudged dirt smeared across her face and arms and legs, breathtaking in her awe. She turned to me. Her large heavenly blue eyes were red but happy, glistening with tears, yet they carried the look full of eternal innocence and tenderness that has been worn on that beautiful face for the millennia of our love...  
  
I cautiously took her hand, caressing her palm with my fingers, taking in every single feature of her face... every single line of her messy hair... and I collapsed.  
  
SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME LATER  
  
* USAGI *  
  
"Usagi, what do you think you're doing?! Get in bed this instant!"  
  
"Mo-om! I feel FINE! And I WANT to KNOW!"  
  
"Honey, the doctor told us that you've suffered a severe mental shock, deprivation of water, both nervous and physical exhaustion, and inner burn of lungs! I'm afraid to think what would have happened to you should you remember those terrible memories! What if you'll have a heart attack?! We can only thank Gods that you've lost your memory... Get in bed."  
  
"I WILL NOT GET IN BED... MOMMY! I've spent the whole past month in it! And I'll have a heart attack RIGHT NOW if I don't know what had happened while I was in the cave!!"  
  
"Oh, dear... Here, have some medicine..."  
  
"MOM!"  
  
* MAMORU *  
  
Good Gods! Why won't Mrs. Tsukino let me speak to her daughter over the phone?! What if I'm the only one who forgot? What if she knows?! No; she has a 'debilitated mentality' and 'is not to be reminded of those awful events'! But what about ME? The doctors said that the two of us had spent the entire day in that cave, and I'd have a debilitated mentality (whatever it was) myself if I didn't find out what had happened while -  
  
I was snapped out of my unpleasant thoughts when some sort of a flying object got in contact with my head.  
  
Blinking stupidly, I stopped in the middle of walking up the sidewalk, then bent over to pick up the white paper ball that had been used as somebody's missile. I straightened out the edges. It was a test on English.  
  
I glanced above the paper and saw the back of some girl dressed in a school sailor uniform with two long blonde ponytails which nearly swept up the pavement behind her as she trotted on.  
  
I frowned, then shifted my stare back to the paper. My eyes popped up from behind my sunglasses.  
  
"30 points!?"  
  
The girl wheeled to a halt and whirled around on me. Her large heavenly blue eyes were wide and frightened, yet they carried the look full of eternal innocence and tenderness that has been worn on that beautiful face for the millennia of -  
  
WHAT THE HECK AM I THINKING ABOUT?  
  
I gulped. What was that expression in her eyes? Why was it that one glance from that girl elicited such bizarre thoughts from me?  
  
Shakily, I twisted my mouth in a smirk. "Hey, are you really that stupid or just pretending?"  
  
A look of anger and mortification appeared on the girl's face. Her azure eyes sending bolts of electricity through me, she swiftly snatched her test paper from my numb hand and... stuck her tongue out at me, producing an adorable... wait, NOT exactly adorable teasing sound. Then she spun around on her heels, almost succeeding in tripping over her own feet, and stomped off, her ponytails swirling in the breeze...  
  
I took off my glasses and stared after the girl, blinking vigorously. A grin unconsciously stretched my mouth wide.  
  
"Funny girl..."  
  
I had a feeling that something... sometime... somewhere... had happened... something that I had to remember...  
  
Had to.  
  
THE END!  
  
__________________________________________________________________________________________   
  
By May K. Lunnaya  
  
With comments and/or for information, contact May K. Lunnaya at sergek@co.ru.   
  
A bear hug to my editor Irina, a thank you to Neo-Cosmos, and a smiling Butterfinger to RuneJayce - my Beta Readers!  
  
Mainly based on the characters created by Naoko Takeuchi. Nobu is mine!  
  
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.  
  
"Caveman and Woman" copyright © 2000-2003 May K. Lunnaya. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. 


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